In the semiconductor industry, devices are fabricated by a number of manufacturing processes producing structures of ever-decreasing size. As the critical dimensions for semiconductor devices continue to shrink, there is an unyielding need to improve the cleanliness of the processing environment within a semiconductor process chamber. Such contamination may be caused, in part, by chamber components. For example, contamination may be caused by gas delivery components, such as a nozzle or showerhead.
For ceramic chamber components, ceramic particles (e.g., yttrium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, etc.) tend to peel off during exposure to vacuum and plasma conditions, resulting in wafer defects. Standard cleaning methods are often ineffective in removing the ceramic particles from the chamber components. While high quality materials have been used in chamber components in an effort to reduce particle defects, these materials often drive up the manufacturing costs of the chamber components sometimes as much as three-fold or greater.